Join Us on Our Trip Aboard The Hanse Explorer in Antarctica!

The Hanse Explorer

General Trip Information

Voyage to another world: underwater photography in Antarctica and ice diving with leopard seals

Wherever we go in the world, Big Animals Expeditions seeks the purest, most natural locations for exploration and wildlife photography. In this regard, nothing compares to our Antarctic expedition. And no ordinary Antarctic tour can compare with ours, either. (With three Zodiacs onboard, and only four guests per Zodiac, you'll have maximum freedom to explore the best diving and shooting locations, just like the camera crews from the BBC or National Geographic, and unlike any conventional Antarctic tour.)

We travel with only 12 guests onboard, compared with the 50 -100 people one would usually travel with. Our uncrowded dive boat allows us to roam among the glories of Antarctica on our own schedule. This relaxed approach to exploring Antarctica is the perfect complement to our exhilarating underwater polar adventures: diving along the face of icebergs in search of the Antarctic icefish, observing crabeater seals, and Weddell seals, and carefully encountering the star of the show: the (more leopard than seal) leopard seal, in all its predatory glory. With fourteen days to explore, we will come to know this hunter very well, and understand its role in the polar eco-system.

We'll go ashore to chatter along with vast, noisy colonies of Gentoo, Chinstrap, and Ad-lie penguins. Using polar diving dry suit gear, we'll photograph the unbelievable richness of marine life with enough flexibility in our schedule to follow orcas on their hunt or wait for whales to go through a full range of behaviors. Below, you'll be glad to have the benefit of Amos' 12 years photographing the underwater wildlife of Antarctica.